Is your school relying more on grants to cover costs and programs? I want to hear about it. Please tell me all about it at emily.alpert@voiceofsandiego.org. Now for the newsblitz:
- Legal threats elsewhere in the state are spurring school districts here in San Diego County to reconsider how they elect their school boards. Advocates say it could literally change the face of school boards by amplifying the voices of minority voters.
- The Union-Tribune opines in favor of freeing schools to spend state money as they wish — instead of having strings attached to dollars for different uses. California schools got that freedom last year as a temporary aid in the budget crunch. Confused? Check out our old article about how all this funding stuff works.
- UCSD students are weighing a resolution recommending the university divest from corporations that do business with Israel, SDNN reports.
- The Reader tracks which San Diegans are donating to Gloria Romero’s bid to become the California state superintendent.
- A school district with just one school said thanks, but no thanks to unifying with two other Escondido school districts, the North County Times writes.
- Calexico kids went back to school yesterday after the Easter earthquake — and KPBS reports they were excited about it.
- A local charter school leader writes a guest column in the U-T arguing that charter schools still face obstacles, but have made “incredible progress” in the communities they serve.
- The Davis school board could cut back on the amount of homework Davis kids get, the Sacramento Bee writes.
- The San Francisco Chronicle reports on how education cuts in the Bay Area are impacting the local economy, according to a new study.
- Educated Guess blogs that digital textbooks are multiplying.
- Do single-sex schools work better for boys of color? Education Week reports on a new study that finds “there’s no magic to separating boys.”
- A Harvard study found that the two states that won Race to the Top, a competition for more stimulus money for schools, use state tests that are watered down compared to a national exam, the Washington Post reports.
- The New York Times editorializes that Congress should approve a second wave of stimulus money for schools to prevent teacher layoffs.
- Could a teacher with an accent be better for an English learner? Education Week blogs about why Arizona’s move to pull teachers with accents away from students learning English might be wrong.
- And The New York Times also has this fascinating story from Cairo, where students who enroll at an American university spend their first year unlearning the ways they were taught before.
— EMILY ALPERT